Back to 1997, I became the originator of online literature

Chapter 404 The storm is rising
Wang Xuezhi sat in front of his computer, reading the Qidian website message several times. He then opened the Qidian homepage and looked at "Midnight Carriage to Another World," which ranked fourth on the weekly recommendation list. In addition to this list, his book also ranked seventh on the weekly click list.

It's fair to say that his book is currently... at least this week, very popular on Qidian.

At that moment, he wondered: Is the current popularity of my book enough to qualify it for recommendation to Yangtze River Literature and Art Publishing House?
enough?

Two years ago, when he wrote love letters to his ex-girlfriend, he repeatedly asked himself this question: Am I qualified?

enough?

Back then, he repeatedly asked himself this question, but he still had no idea.

But he still wrote her a love letter.

Because he liked her very much.

And now?
He really wanted this publishing opportunity.

In the workplace, he saw no hope of getting ahead. Changing jobs? He wasn't confident he could find a better one.

Looking to the future, all he saw was a gray, bleak landscape.

But as a human being, he also wants to achieve success and fame, and to attain worldly success, such as earning more than others, living in a better place than others, and having a girlfriend who is prettier than others' girlfriends, and so on.

—Just ask! Asking won't kill you.

After the thought flashed through his mind, he logged onto QQ and sent a message to his editor.

"Boss, do you think my 'Midnight Carriage to Another World' is qualified to be recommended for publication? I mean, recommended to Yangtze River Literature and Art Publishing House."

Editors are usually offline in the evenings.

After sending the message, he waited for a long time but did not receive a reply.

……

Xuehong also saw that in-site message when she was preparing to update her work that night.

He is currently writing "The Rise of the Rogue".

In the original timeline, he wrote the Rogue Trilogy.

The first part is not long, only a few dozen chapters.

In the current time and space, he has already written a book on the theme of "rogue," which is not very long. This book, "Rogue: The Rise of the Storm," is his second book on the theme of "rogue."

Compared to the first book, this second one, "Rogue," is much more popular.

Therefore, he had a long-term vision for this book.

In the original timeline, his writing speed was renowned, with a record of writing 9 words in a single day, a feat that left countless writers far behind.

However, his update speed is not fast at the moment.

It's not that my typing speed is bad, it's that I lack the motivation to update frequently.

Although his two "rogue" works have become increasingly popular online, each one is set in an urban setting.

These days, publishers in Taiwan prefer fantasy and martial arts novels, while urban fiction is not favored.

Mainland publishers are even less interested in stories like this.

So now he's one of those writers who write out of passion, without earning any royalties.

Without the incentive of royalties, he naturally lacked the motivation to update his blog every day.

His motivation to keep writing stemmed solely from his enjoyment of his work, which was enjoyed by thousands of readers who gave it rave reviews.

What you get is spiritual satisfaction.

He originally thought that although his book was quite popular, it had no chance of being published.

But seeing this internal message from Qidian tonight gave him hope that his work would be published in simplified Chinese.

His book is currently ranked second on Qidian's weekly recommendation list and third on the weekly click list, with over 12,000 people having added it to their favorites.

He felt that if Qidian recommended popular works to Changjiang Literature & Art Publishing House, his book should be qualified based solely on data.

The only thing that made him a little uneasy was that his book was an urban novel, and the title contained the word "rogue."

Would Yangtze River Literature & Art Publishing House even consider such a work?
After thinking for a moment, he smiled and muttered to himself, "Give it a try! Maybe there'll be a chance!"

He then logged onto QQ and sent a message to his editor: "Hi editor! I wonder if my 'rogue' act will be recommended to the publishing house?"

His editor was online at the time and quickly replied to him: "Your book's popularity should meet the requirements, but the publishing house has its own submission standards, so I can't say for sure whether your book will be selected. However, I can apply to the higher-ups to include your book in the recommended list."

Xue Hong smiled again.

He has a broad-minded and easygoing personality. He doesn't have any obsession with publishing, but he does want to make money and experience what publishing is like.

"Okay, thank you! I'll wait for good news."

……

In the following days, many writers who serialized their works on Qidian, like Wang Xuezhi and Xue Hong, sent private messages to their editors, hoping to get a publishing opportunity.

Anyone whose work is even slightly popular gets a little restless.

Everyone wants this opportunity.

Even authors whose works have already been published in traditional Chinese in Taiwan are not sitting still, because although their works have been published in traditional Chinese, they still hold the copyrights for simplified Chinese. This is the norm in the industry in this era. Even writers who are hailed as "masters" on the internet, even if their works sell well after being published in traditional Chinese, most of them cannot get their works published in simplified Chinese.

……

In fact, Qidian sent more than just in-site messages to authors that night to inform them of this news.

At the same time, an announcement was also posted in the announcement section at the top of the website homepage.

This announcement is visible to everyone.

The readers saw it, but the reaction was lukewarm.

Because the content of this announcement clearly has nothing to do with the readers.

However, some writers from other websites were tempted after seeing this announcement. They wanted to serialize their works on Qidian and get the opportunity to be recommended by Qidian to Yangtze River Literature and Art Publishing House.

If you're interested, take action.

Many people immediately registered author accounts on Qidian, then copied their works and posted them on Qidian.

It's very free! There are absolutely no legal risks.

Although their works had been published on other websites before, in this era without the concept of signing contracts with websites, almost all works were free. It was common in the industry for the same book to be serialized on multiple websites at the same time.

During this period, online literature websites generally gave authors two options: first publication or residency on the site.

When an author publishes their work on a website, they can select "First published on this site" or "Work published on this site".

But actually there's no difference.

Regardless of which publication method is chosen, it will not affect the author's ability to publish the book on other websites. In fact, when publishing on several websites, the author can select "first publication on this site" for each.

The degree of freedom is absolutely the highest in history.

The only downside is that there's no payment for the articles.

... Taking advantage of this opportunity, Qidian's editors also began to reach out to authors on other websites, enticing them to publish their works on Qidian.

The statements were largely the same.

For example: "We have reached a strategic cooperation with Changjiang Literature & Art Publishing House. From now on, Changjiang Literature & Art Publishing House will select 6 works from our website for publication every month. Would you like to try our website?"

Not only are official editors actively involved, but these days, various online novel platforms also have unpaid staff, such as moderators and administrators of certain sections of the website. These people are often enthusiastic readers of the website.

The website entrusts some sections to these enthusiastic readers to manage, giving them a sense of participation.

There was some compensation, but it wasn't in money.

The website usually gives them some gold coins or privileges for a certain section, or sends them a greeting card or a small gift during holidays.

Yet they can motivate these people for free.

Qidian (the online platform) naturally also has such unofficial staff.

While the editors were out there recruiting readers from other websites, these unofficial staff members were also becoming "readers" of popular works on those websites.

They suggested these authors try Qidian, posing as "readers".

The gist of the message was: "Hey, have you heard? Qidian and Yangtze River Literature and Art Publishing House have reached a strategic cooperation agreement. It's even been announced on the homepage of Qidian. If you don't believe me, you can go and take a look. I think if you also publish your book on Qidian, it should have a chance to be recommended to Yangtze River Literature and Art Publishing House. Would you like to give it a try?"

……

Even Cao Sheng received such advice.

One evening, after Cao Sheng finished updating "The Legend of the Primordial Era," he habitually went to the book review section. While reading the reviews, he saw the following post:
"Dear author, I think your book is very well written. I suggest you try publishing it on Qidian. Qidian has just reached a strategic cooperation with Yangtze River Literature and Art Publishing House. They will select several works from Qidian for publication every month. So, I sincerely suggest you publish your book on Qidian. Maybe Qidian will recommend it to Yangtze River Literature and Art Publishing House!"

The content of this post made Cao Sheng laugh.

He was curious about how other readers would comment, so he scrolled down the post and read more than a dozen comments.

"Haha... I was feeling down all day, but this post successfully made me laugh. Thank you! Thank you! May you have a long and peaceful life, OP."

"Does the original poster want to find out which publisher released the simplified Chinese version of this book? Or I'll just tell you! It's Changjiang Literature & Art Publishing House! Haha..."

"Is the original poster new to the internet? Haven't you heard of Zhongyuan Yidianhui?"

"I guess the poster is probably not very old. Did you graduate from junior high school? What a pitiful kid. You've never read novels before, have you?"

"If Ah Hui saw this post, would he laugh himself to death?"

"Ha ha……"

……

These days, novel websites and writers are all broke.

They're all practically desperate for money.

There are countless websites where people seek to sell themselves and be kept by sugar daddies.

But most of them can't be sold even if they want to.

Ninety-nine percent of the authors don't earn a single penny; in fact, they have to pay for internet access in addition to not earning money.

Many authors often eat instant noodles or white rice with chili sauce in order to upload their works online; this is a common practice.

Therefore, the most attractive feature of online novel platforms during this period for authors was their availability of publishing resources.

Any website that can recommend works to publishers can attract many authors to publish their work.

For this reason, some novel websites with publishing resources will specially create a section: Publishing Recommendations.

The works recommended in this section often use the covers of sample copies of published works.

Looks very classy.

Some novel websites, even those without publishing resources, have created a similar section called "Publishing Recommendations" to deceive readers.

However, such websites simply treat this section as a regular recommendation slot, explaining to authors that appearing in this recommendation slot is equivalent to recommending them to a publisher.

Actually?

Getting featured in this recommended spot is completely useless.

Therefore, it is conceivable that when the news spread that Qidian had announced a strategic partnership with Changjiang Literature & Art Publishing House, and that Changjiang Literature & Art Publishing House would select 6 books from Qidian for publication every month, it was met with great enthusiasm.

The industry was immediately abuzz with excitement.

The number of submissions flooding the platform each day is several times greater than before.

Some of them were recruited by Qidian editors and staff, while most came voluntarily to publish their works. For the authors, it was just a matter of spending some time transferring their works from other websites to Qidian.

What about other websites?

What was the reaction?
Actually, there was no reaction.

Because no one lost any money.

There was no loss of authors or works. Many authors, although they serialized their works on Qidian, continued to update them on the original website.

If I had to describe any reaction, there was one.

But it's not visible on the surface.

The general response from these websites is that they are trying to find publishers with whom they can cooperate.

They want to emulate Qidian and reach a similar strategic cooperation with a certain publishing house.

Ru Huanjian frequently sent cooperation invitations to various publishing houses in mainland China.

It's like handing a love letter to a girl.

I called the publishing house today to ask: Are you interested in doing this?
I'll call that publishing house tomorrow and ask: Are you interested?
……

At a time when the industry was in turmoil.

The book review section for Cao Sheng's "The Legend of the Primordial Era" is also bustling with activity.

Since the news of Cao Sheng's new book "The Romance of Chinese Martial Arts" being published in traditional Chinese characters in Taiwan spread back to the mainland, the book review section of his previous book "The Romance of the Primordial Era" has seen a surge of posts urging him to upload the new book as soon as possible.

Every day, a bunch of people urge me on.

Especially as time went by, Cao Sheng still didn't post the new book online, and the number of posts urging him to release it in the book review section of "The Legend of the Primordial Era" was almost overwhelming the entire review section.

Even though the novel "The Legend of the Primordial Era" is not yet finished being serialized, and even though the recent plot has been very satisfying for readers, they still can't help but post in the book review section to urge the readers to finish reading the latest chapter.

For example: "Where's the new book? Ah Hui, why haven't you released the new book yet?"

"What about 'The Romance of Chinese Martial Arts'? Don't think we don't know your new book has been published, why haven't you released it yet?"

"Does Ah Hui no longer care about us online book fans? Why isn't the new book released yet? Before, if we urged you, you would release the new book very quickly. Why haven't you responded even though so many of us have urged you this time? Don't you really love us anymore?"

"Please, author, publish a new book!"

"Author! This book is great, but I can't get enough of it! Please release the new book soon!"

(End of this chapter)